All posts by Mike

Is the camera off?

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride
Doppelganger for sure

Normalcy almost restored. This morning I was able to get my left foot into my regular shoe (with a little help from two advils) and it felt better and better as the ride went.

Just myself and Kevin this morning; not sure where everybody else was, since rain was in the forecast for later in the day. You’d think people would want to get out while they could! But only saw a couple others out there; Tom C descending Kings as we were climbing (he’s apparently one of those “morning” people) and another guy (Chris C according to Strava Flyby) at the top of West Old LaHonda who’d just finished the infamous “morning” ride just prior. Instant cred for that!

Kings was nothing fast, just getting used to things again, and obviously in winter mode. Without any rabbits to chase, Kevin stayed with me all the way up, with the easy pace even allowing for some conversation (the sort of conversation where he prefaces some questions with “Is the camera off?”). Just normal life stuff. I was still a bit concerned about having time to do the full West Old LaHonda loop, but the often-ridiculously-long light at the Bear Gulch construction area was actually green for the first time in recent history, saving us several minutes.

West Old LaHonda didn’t have much of a view, with the storm coming in, but still had to get in the mandatory photo. In my mind, I swear, there was a double sun hanging out over the ocean as Kevin gazed into his future and saw… well never mind, like I said, the camera was off.

My foot’s not quite so gross once you crop out the bad stuff.

Really really glad the broken toe isn’t causing much of an issue. It’s changed from “something that can’t be unseen” into, well, it’s not exactly pretty but kind of curious to look at. Interesting hues of purple. The only thing a bit off-putting might be the hairs that show up in the photo, but it’s not like I’m going to “go Brazilian” for my feet. I mean, do people actually do that sort of thing? Ewwww.

Just a couple more rides before I’m off for a bit. Well, not completely off the bike; heading to Cambodia with my daughter for a few days, where we’ll be doing some tours of the Angkor Wat region by bike. Pretty easy biking; completely flat and maybe 30km/day, but it’s a lot better than walking or being driven around!
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Broken toe on Saturday, no ride Sunday, Tuesday morning back on bike!

Personal stuff, Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

Beautiful view as the fog begins to burn off
A bit of catching up to do. On Saturday, test-riding a bike for a chain-skipping problem, I was successful. I got the chain to skip. Of course, I had to apply a huge amount of power to get it to do so, and when it did, it sent me literally over the handlebars, doing a mid-air flip and landing on my back. I lay there for a minute, doing an inventory, checking to make sure all my parts were intact and movable, before getting up. Left hand and left foot were not happy. Hand not quite so bad, but the foot, the big toe, just didn’t quite feel right. Becky and Kevin talked me into heading to Kaiser ER, which, of course, I rode a bike to. Hey, injured, doesn’t everybody ride a bike to the ER?

Very gross photo of a very gross foot which you might not want to enlarge by clicking on it!
I told the admitting person I thought I had either a sprained or broken toe. She asked what my pain level was, 1 to 10 scale. I said truthfully, 2. She said no way was it broken if pain was only a 2. Tried to explain to her that I don’t typically feel pain from broken bones, but why bother, people don’t get that. Should have told her something like a 7 pain level and probably would have been seen sooner!

They take x-rays; hand is ok, big toe on left foot, what a surprise, it’s broken. And it’s swelling. Fun. Doc tells me to “buddy tape” it, gives me a funny sort of shoe to try to keep the toe from taking much pressure, and tells me someone from podiatry will give me a call in a few days. Unfortunately, as expected, I wasn’t able to ride Sunday because I really couldn’t get a shoe on that foot. I did try. I did fail. It wasn’t just pain; it just wouldn’t fit. Foot looked like a puffer fish. Pretty depressing, not being able to ride on a Sunday, and concerned about how much longer I might be out of commission. Visions of casts for 3 or 4 weeks, that sort of thing.

This morning I took some pre-emptive action against that possibility, by proving I was nuts enough to ride anyway. I used an older shoe of Kevin’s, from back in the day when he fit a much larger size, and rode with that on my left foot, regular shoe on my right foot. Felt a bit weird, sure, but I was able to ride, and that’s the important thing. Especially since I wanted some leverage with any doc that might be telling me I couldn’t.

The doc actually called while I was on the ride; I got back to him later and the news was basically about as good as it could be. First good news- there’s nothing they can do for a toe broken where mine was. No casting. Second good new- I really couldn’t do anything to it that would make it worse or take longer to recover! Riding was fine, especially since cycling shoes have stiff soles, distributing the pressure.

So, things are not so bad. Dodged a close one!